Multiplayer gaming can be hell....
I've only recently embraced the great unwashed masses in
Battlefield 3 and a bit of Modern Warfare 3.
That's because for the most part online multiplayer gaming has been a
less than satisfying experience in the past few years.
When every server you drop into gets you killed in 5 seconds
(over and over again) it's not fun. That
still happens to me but not as often as it used to. I'm not sure if it's just better server side
controls than we had back in the Battlefield 1942 days or lengthening of my
patience, either way it's better now.
At my age I think I've built up a bit more tolerance to a
lot of the tom foolery that goes on in these games. At times, though, I could really just throw
something and have.
Take the other Lan party night, for instance. I was on one of my favorite BF3 servers
playing on the Kharg Island map on the US side.
This map can be challenging but it's usually an enjoyable map and I've
picked up a few perks from playing it previously.
That wasn't the case last night. While playing on the US side we were giving
quite a thrashing to the opponents on the Russian side. Up by more than 300 tickets for most of the
game, we were doing well. Then we
discovered an interloper, a plant, an individual up to no good.
Team Fortress 2 has a player type called a spy that can
infiltrate the opposing team by donning
a disguise allowing him to move freely amongst the enemy till he strikes. When he does the subterfuge is revealed and
his round is over shortly thereafter.
Still, he's accomplished his goal.
We had one of those in our BF3 match. Except there's no such role in BF3. At least not one we could dispatch when we
realized what he was doing. This guy was
legitimately on our team but it seemed he worked to make sure we lost. I can't say for certain if that was his plan
but the player's actions and attitude turned a certain win into a loss.
An unskilled player is one thing and I understand everyone
has to start somewhere. This guy was
playing a role, however. He camped in a
tank and never moved from the spawn point.
He tried to fire on his own team but luckily for us friendly fire was
not enabled. All on the team wished it
was, however, to get rid of him.
Because he occupied one of only two tanks we were denied a
critical resource. When asked to make
room he spewed obscenities and remained immobile while continuing trying to kill his teammates. Since he was untouchable he also denied other
players a spot on the team who might have actually contributed something to our
efforts.
Soon other players
with the same attitude as this bad actor joined
when they could get a spot and overtly tried to sabotage our team. They didn't realize that their efforts had no
effect other than being annoying and denying us needed manpower and resources.
Maybe that's a game strategy but it's a bad one if it
doesn't fit the game mechanics. It's
gaming the game and that ruins the experience for everyone. It's also pointless. That player in my example gained no points,
no accolades and made no progress in his profile since he contributed nothing. His only accomplishment was to earn the
hatred of the other players.
While game server admins can't respond to every complaint
about another player's actions there should have been some mechanism to kick
this player off the team at the least.
Perhaps the ability to call a team vote to kick this kind of joker off
the server would work.
Of course that introduces its own set of problems. How do you keep players from monopolizing a server
to the exclusion of all others? That's
what happens on many FPS game servers when groups of players called clans come
into a game. Eventually they have to
move to their own servers when public servers tire of the monopolizing of their
resources.
Luckily many BF3 server admins are vigilant and will kick problem
players if they see enough complaints in the chat window. I've seen plenty of players kicked out for
using cheats as well. While this
experience isn't cheating, per se' it has the same effect.
The Internet is still the wild west and gaming is no
different. We rely on the good conduct
of others to keep it useful and friendly.
When a few decide to act inappropriately there's not much that can be
done about it. Moving on to another
server is still the best advice.
If players overwhelmingly act as I've described or use
cheats to dominate a multiplayer game experience, however, the game will
eventually die. Publishers don't want
that since the value of their game catalogs are largely dependent on
Multiplayer in most games these days.
Some developers like DICE have gone as far to create a new executive
position exclusively focused on anti-cheating.
So far I see more cheats than bad actors in multiplayer
gaming. Cheats are easy to deal with,
bad behavior much less so. For now,
community pressure within the session may be the only fix. It's still just a game but for many of us
there's a commitment of time if nothing else.
It's not a job, it's not going to earn you any income or advance your
career so why so serious?
For the same reason that I don't want some slob with a huge
belt buckle leaning on my collector car I don't want someone ruining my gaming
experience during the limited time I have to devote to it.. It's an investment that nobody has a right to
diminish especially when you've paid for the privilege.
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